{"id":56706,"date":"2025-11-03T18:56:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T15:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=56706"},"modified":"2025-11-03T18:56:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T15:56:24","slug":"survivors-from-el-fasher-recount-horrific-scenes-of-killing-torture-and-abduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/03\/survivors-from-el-fasher-recount-horrific-scenes-of-killing-torture-and-abduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Survivors from El Fasher recount horrific scenes of killing, torture, and abduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sudan Events \u2013 Agencies<\/strong><\/p>\n

As she fled El Fasher in North Darfur, fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stripped Madihah Al-Toum Bashir of her clothes after she was forced to abandon the body of her child, who had been shot dead before her eyes.<\/p>\n

The ordeal Madihah endured reflects only a fraction of the atrocities committed by RSF elements after seizing control of El Fasher on October 26, when the militia carried out widespread violations, mass killings of civilians and prisoners, and imposed a total communications blackout on the city.<\/p>\n

RSF troops pursued fleeing residents along the roads, rounding up many of them in the area of Qarni, where thousands remain stranded \u2014 including children separated from their families.<\/p>\n

Madihah described her ordeal to Sudan Tribune, recounting her flight from Al-Sahafa neighborhood to Al-Daraja Al-Ula and then to the town of Tawila. \u201cI fled at around 2 a.m. after shells began striking our home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She explained that she and others took the western road toward Qarni, passing through multiple checkpoints where they were subjected to humiliating and invasive searches. \u201cThey stripped us of our clothes, took our money and phones\u2026 we were just running, not knowing where we were heading, with elderly people and the sick among us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The most devastating moment came when Madihah watched her son being killed. \u201cBefore my eyes, an RSF fighter shot my son dead and ordered me to leave. I had to abandon his body without burying him, while my husband was arrested \u2014 we still don\u2019t know his fate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlong the road between El Fasher and Tawila, corpses were scattered everywhere. Any man fleeing the city was either killed or captured,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Fatima Al-Toum Abdelrahman\u2019s story was no less harrowing. Aware that escaping death would mean enduring pain and humiliation, she recounted her journey from the Abu Shouk camp north of the city toward the Mellit checkpoint. \u201cEach checkpoint was worse than death itself,\u201d she told Sudan Tribune.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe soldiers forced us to stand for hours under the scorching sun while beating us and hurling racist insults, calling us \u2018slaves\u2019 and mocking us as \u2018eaters of okra and hides,\u2019\u201d Fatima said.<\/p>\n

She witnessed RSF fighters execute two of her relatives, aged between thirty and forty-five, accusing them of being army or rebel sympathizers. Fatima eventually collapsed from exhaustion and horror before being taken with other women to a northern area where they were separated from the men.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose men who remained were executed on the spot,\u201d she continued. \u201cThe soldiers made sure we could hear their screams as they were shot, shouting, \u2018Die, you dogs!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Daoud Mohamed Abkar, another survivor from El Fasher, described the terrifying hours when RSF forces stormed the city on October 26. \u201cPeople were running in every direction, fleeing shells and bullets, with women and children screaming,\u201d he told Sudan Tribune from a shelter in Al-Daraja Al-Ula neighborhood.<\/p>\n

While fleeing, Daoud\u2019s group encountered RSF troops near the University of El Fasher. They were stopped, beaten, and separated by age. \u201cI saw RSF fighters execute seven young men who were accused of fighting alongside the army,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that while a group of over fifty people \u2014 mostly children \u2014 was later allowed to move on, they were brutally beaten again at a checkpoint near Qarni. \u201cThey struck everyone without mercy\u2026 some were left behind, probably dead from the torture.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Daoud, vehicles charged 500,000 Sudanese pounds per person to transport escapees, but most could not afford the fee and had to flee on foot \u2014 risking arrest and looting by RSF-aligned tribal militias on motorcycles, horses, and camels, who also carried out mass executions.<\/p>\n

Civilians escaping El Fasher are also being systematically kidnapped by RSF units, which detain hundreds of people and extort their families for large sums of money, human rights lawyer Abdelbasit Al-Haj told Sudan Tribune.<\/p>\n

He said the militias contact relatives of the abducted \u2014 including those in safer areas or abroad \u2014 demanding ransoms exceeding 100 million Sudanese pounds (around USD 170,000) per person. Failure to pay, he said, results in torture, with videos of victims sent to families to pressure them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese violations reflect a deliberate policy to subjugate civilians and maintain control, exploiting the economic desperation of those displaced after more than 18 months of siege and displacement,\u201d Al-Haj explained. \u201cThe militias have nothing left to loot except the civilians themselves \u2014 so they turned to abductions and extortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that RSF forces warn families not to speak publicly about the kidnappings, threatening to kill the hostages if they do. \u201cThe silence of the international community is worsening the crisis,\u201d he warned, calling for the RSF to be designated a terrorist organization and held accountable for crimes against civilians.<\/p>\n

Three survivors \u2014 including a doctor \u2014 told Sudan Tribune they had been kidnapped and tortured by RSF fighters and forced to record ransom videos for their families. One said his captors initially demanded 75 million pounds before agreeing to release him for 20 million.<\/p>\n

Another family from eastern Sudan said they paid 18 million pounds for their relative\u2019s release, but the kidnappers broke their promise and contact was lost after payment.<\/p>\n

Adam Regal, spokesperson for the General Coordination of Displaced Persons and Refugees in Darfur, warned of a grave humanitarian deterioration in the Tawila area of North Darfur, which has received massive influxes of people fleeing El Fasher and nearby regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe humanitarian situation in Tawila is catastrophic,\u201d Regal told Sudan Tribune. \u201cHundreds of thousands have arrived over the past months, and people continue to arrive daily.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the displaced are living in dire conditions, facing acute shortages of food and clean water. Tawila relies on a few water tankers that cannot meet the growing demand, forcing many to drink unsafe water from open streams, raising fears of disease outbreaks.<\/p>\n

Regal stressed the urgent need for shelter materials, life-saving medicines, psychological support, education, and safe spaces for children. He added that those arriving from El Fasher had endured grave human rights abuses, including killings, sexual violence, rape, looting, and intimidation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of October, about 11,000 new arrivals were registered in Tawila, bringing the total displaced population to over one million,\u201d he said. \u201cBetween 450 and 500 children have arrived unaccompanied, and around 450 patients are being treated in Tawila Hospital, which suffers from severe shortages of medicines and IV fluids.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called for an immediate ceasefire and a temporary humanitarian truce to open roads and allow aid delivery without restrictions. \u201cAs long as the war continues, so will the wounds, the tears, and the grief,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Regal urged Sudanese political forces to pursue a \u201cSudanese\u2013Sudanese dialogue or national roundtable\u201d to achieve lasting peace, and appealed to the international community, the Quartet, and the United Nations and its humanitarian agencies to act urgently to save hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Tawila, Jebel Marra, Kassab camp, Kurma, and other affected areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sudan Events \u2013 Agencies As she fled El Fasher in North Darfur, fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stripped Madihah Al-Toum Bashir of her clothes after she was forced to abandon the body of her child, who had been shot dead before her eyes. The ordeal Madihah endured reflects only a fraction of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56708,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56706\/revisions\/56708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}